hello I'm Simon Whistler you're watching
top 10s Nessun in the video today we're
looking at the top 10 grim
archaeological discoveries with
archaeology we are able to take a peek
into the past
ancient texts though revealing often
sometimes subjective written by
conquerors and victors skewing the facts
to make themselves appear in a more
positive light burst ancient relics
buried deep in the ground by time or
people tell a more complete story of
what happens hundreds if not thousands
of years ago with the help of
archaeology scientists and historians
can slowly piece together the story of
humanity as well as the planet itself
and as these things often are long
forgotten secrets can sometimes be scary
if not downright gruesome in the video
today at ten such grim archaeological
discoveries number 10 the first recorded
boomerang victim in Australia even
though we tend to think of boomerangs as
toys to be thrown around they are in
fact deadly weapons with which the
aboriginals have been hunting and
killing for thousands of years in 2014
in Australia's - raúl national park on
the banks of the darling River a
skeleton belonging to an Aboriginal was
discovered by a local man knowing it to
belong to one of his ancestors William
Bateson Aboriginal himself named him
Kakuta older brother in the bacardi
language taking a closer look mr. Bates
noticed a gash over khat Korea's right
eye extending all the way to his jaw it
first appeared as if the skull was
struck by an iron blade with the
skeleton belonging to one of the many
victims of frontier violence from the
time of British colonialism in Australia
however on closer inspection by Michael
West away a paleoanthropologist at
Griffith University in Queensland
Australia it was discovered that this
was not the case in fact kakuta lived
some five hundred years before the
british ever set foot on the continent
and that the man was in his 20s or 30s
when he died moreover several other
signs of trauma were discovered all over
the skeleton marks which were made by a
wooden object rather than a metal sword
scientists were puzzled at first since
no one had ever seen traumas such as
this and Australia's entire
archaeological history while several of
the other wounds came from a little L
Lane
and cloud made to look and perform like
an ordinary axe the gash on his face was
clearly from a battle boomerang when
found kikuchiyo was lying on his right
side in a tightly curled up position and
with his mouth open wide these all
indicates a gruesome and violent death
sometime between 1260 and 1280 ad number
nine the first victims of war Kenya what
was always believed to have appeared on
the worldwide stage alongside
agriculture and animal husbandry when
mankind renounced its hunter-gatherer
lifestyle and opted for a more sedentary
way of life this is also the time when
wealth and belongings beyond one's
immediate needs came into existence and
also when it became profitable for a
person to own another these of course
don't rule out the occasional individual
murders among various families they
refer to actual wars between groups of
hunter-gatherers without a strict social
hierarchy system which were believed to
be virtually non-existent
this notion however may have been turned
on its head when a group of 27 skeletons
were found on the edge of Lake Turkana
in Kenya in 2002 dating back to between
nine thousand five hundred and ten
thousand five hundred years ago these 27
bodies of men women and children all
showed signs of blunt force trauma and
projectile wounds one woman had both of
her knees broken was lying on her side
and with her wrists in front of her as
if they were once bound together this
large number of skeletons found together
rules out the notion of any small-scale
feud between prehistoric families
suggesting that these people belonged to
a sizeable hunter-gatherer group some of
which may have escaped death in this
particular conflict these gruesome
findings have led archaeologists do you
believe that these people were members
of a somewhat large semi nomadic tribe
of hunter-gatherers who settled on the
banks of Lake Turkana this was not so
uncommon since Lakes acted as both a
stable water source as well as ensuring
a constant influx of wild game suitable
for hunting violence is a pretty
ubiquitous part of the human behavioral
repertoire said Robert Foley
anthropologists and archaeologists at
the University of Cambridge having said
that so too is altruism cooperation and
caring number 8 the pit of death France
close to the border with Germany in a
French village known as Bergheim a
circular pit dating to around 6,000
years ago with
discovered in 2012 it contains the
remains of eight people and seven seven
left ours among other hands fragments
circular pits like this were common all
throughout Central and Western Europe
during Neolithic times but none
contained such grisly examples of human
savagery these cylindrical pits may have
been used as storage silos or as graves
for high-ranking individuals those
scholars aren't entirely sure and still
debate the issue it is also a
possibility that slaves or relatives
were killed in order to accompany the
buried noble into the afterlife but in
this case this seems not to have
actually in the case this particular
piers became the final resting place for
two men one woman and four children
which may have been the victims of a
raid or some sort of violent encounter
their bodies were already piled over
several left arms hand fragments and
severed fingers which appeared to have
been hacked off with axes their origin
or purpose is unknown but some speculate
that these were some sort of trophies
one of the severed limbs belongs to a
child no older than 16 while one of the
bodies was that of an infant the deepest
skeleton belonged to a middle aged man
who also had his left arm cut off as
well as several other wounds which most
likely proved fatal one later addition
to the pile the woman was added some 700
years later but she showed no signs of a
violent death or trauma number 7 mass
graves from the great rebellion in
England wanting to build a cafe next to
its library back in 2013 Durham
University began construction with some
preliminary excavations but soon after
work began it came to an abrupt halt
when they came across something believed
to be lost forever to mass graves were
uncovered holding the bodies of over
1700 Scottish soldiers who had been
taken as prisoners of war after the
Battle of Dunbar in 1650 by Oliver
Cromwell in his civil wars for the
British crown the battle which took less
than an hour was fought between
Cromwell's parliamentarian army and the
untrained Scottish Covenanters
who supported charles the second's
claims to the Scottish throne over an
area of less than 11 square feet up to
28 bodies were uncovered belonging to
boys aged between 13 and 25 the lack of
any healed signs of trauma on the
skeletons indicate that these soldiers
didn't have much experience in waging
war and most of them probably died of
starvation dysentery
or exhaustion in the aftermath of the
battle only about 100 Englishmen
perished while some 3000 Scotsman were
killed and another 6,000 were taken
prisoner those who were too sick or
wounded some 1000 soldiers in total were
set free while the others were taken on
the 100 mile long march from Dunbar to
Durham another 1000 boys died along the
way others escaped while some were
executed for trying to do so the
remaining three thousands were
imprisoned in the den disused Durham
Cathedral and Castle during that time in
captivity some 1700 diet and were then
dipped into these two pits which were
located at the far end of the castles
grounds other mass graves may also exist
but they're most likely under the
university DNA analysis has revealed
that most of the soldiers were from
Scotland while a fewer Dutchman also
part of the Scottish army at the time
number 6 Incan child sacrifice to the
gods in Argentina back in 1985 a group
of Mountaineers while on a hike high up
in the Andes at an altitude of
approximately 17 thousand four hundred
feet they came across a partially
unearthed mummy as it turns out the
remains belongs to a 6 or 7 year old
Ingham boy who lived some 500 years ago
moreover it was later discovered that
the boy was sacrificed as part of a
ritual known as Capet Roja the ritual
involve children of great physical
beauty who had act as messengers to the
gods in times of important events events
like a volcanic eruption the death of an
emperor in epidemic a great military
victory or a defeat these children were
gathered from all across the Incan
Empire drugged and then left to die of
exposure to the elements high in the
mountains whether these children were
taken by force or offered willingly by
their parents is still unknown and still
debated today whatever the case may be
this boy proved to be even more
important to scientists than they
previously believed his DNA analysis
placed him as a direct descendent of the
people who crossed over into the
Americas over the Bering Land Bridge
more than 18,000 years ago this initial
group of peoples was called c1b however
the boy didn't belong to any previously
identified genetically distinct
subgroups of people's from c1b
and he was dubbed as c1b i his sub group
most likely emerged in the andes some
14,000 years ago proving that people
moved
relatively fast over North America to
date only four other individuals have
been identified as belonging to this
group three are currently living in Peru
and Bolivia while another lived during
the ancient war ii empire which
flourished from 600 to 1,000 ad number
five the shackled skeletons in greece
back in the seventh century BC the
ancient city of Athens was shaken to
it's very core after an aristocrat and
Olympic Games Viktor cylon attempted to
occupy the Acropolis and establish a
dictatorial governance fortunately his
coup d'etat fails forcing some of cylons
followers to take refuge in the temple
of Athena a place considered sacred and
the safe haven for all of those in sight
in order to break the stalemate
medically zarkan of Athens promised them
safe passage under truce the insurgents
then came out Bert holding onto a rope
tied to the altar once outside the rope
was cut and megacles quickly shouted
that the goddess had forsaken the rebels
and ordered his men to attack in the
aftermath of his treachery Maglis was
convicted for wrongfully killing Cylon
supporters and was exiled from the city
along with his entire family now
archaeologists think they might have
discovered some of the bodies of these
slaughtered rebels four miles away from
Athens in the port city of phalerum the
80 skeletons 36 of which had their hands
bound in iron shackles were discovered
by accident while working on the new
National Library of Greece in the Greek
national opera some vases found among
the bodies of pinpoints the massacre -
between 650 and 625 BC in accordance
with Cylons coup of 635 BC however
Athens was experiencing a tumultuous
period at this time with several riots
crop failures and struggles for power
these events make it difficult to
certainly identify these men as Cylons
rebels nevertheless their position at
the moment of death indicates that they
were buried with respect even though the
deaths were violence many had their
hands shackled above their heads they
weren't thrown inside without
consideration as one might expect to
find with slaves or common criminals
from that period number four a man rose
from the grave ireland's a fierce storm
hits northwest island close to the
atlantic coast in May of 2015 the storm
uprooted a two century-old beech tree
which had a gruesome secret tangled in
its roots a thousand year old skeleton
was lit
really raised from the grave when the
tree collapsed on one side exposing its
bones for the world to see as it turns
out the skeleton belonged to a 17 to 20
year old Gaelic man who lived in Ireland
sometime between 10:30 and 1200 AD
more disturbing is the fact that the
body presented signs of trauma on his
ribs and hands which may have been
inflicted by a knife or a blade of some
sort though ripped in half when the tree
fell the initial east/west portion of
the body would indicate that the man
received a proper Christian burial at
5:40 the body probably belonged to a
relatively wealthy family able to afford
a more nutritious diet giving him an
above average height for the time now
there is no way of knowing if he died in
battle or a personal dispute but
archaeologists are fairly certain that
he was of true Irish descent since they
believe the burial took place before the
anglo-norman invasion of Ireland in 1169
number three a debt-collection gone
terribly wrong romania throughout much
of them at evil history the three
eastern european principalities of will
akeya Moldavia and Transylvania of
present-day Romania were either under
complete control or vassals to their
neighbouring empires such as the Ottoman
Turks or Austrians and always rulership
of these principalities under foreign
government influence came at a price
in 1593 Prince Michael bought his place
on the throne of Willie here from the
tax two years later he would start a
rebellion against the Ottomans the
outcome of which would insure him the
title as one of Romania's most famous
historical heroes and the by name of
Michael the brave but while he was
waging a military campaign across the
banks of the Danube River to the south
conquering fortresses and consolidating
his borders three Turkish military
commanders or elite Ottoman infantry
were being brutally murdered in the will
akin capital of Bucharest
these three are believed to have been
the men who provided Prince Michael with
the necessary money to secure his place
as the ruler of Willie here and now
we're looking to collect on that debt
what happens next was truly a story of
savagery worthy of Vlad the impaler's
countrymen while under renovations in
2010 and 2011 Bucharest's University
Square finally unveiled its gruesome
secret the area also contained a
cemetery with 688 bodies dating back to
between the 16th and the 19th centuries
over three mangled skeletons were found
some distance away thrown in a pier
covered with all sorts of animal remains
bricks and pottery shards this debris
however helped archeologists States the
unmarked grave to around the end of the
16th century the same time as when the
previously mentioned events were taking
place but the most gruesome part about
this discovery was the multiple physical
signs of trauma these men endured just
before their deaths one man suffered a
fractured collarbone ribs wrists
kneecaps hips spine and skull another
suffered a total of 18 wounds while the
third also had a musket ball in his neck
an arrowhead in one of his ribs along
with a viciously cracked skull many of
their wounds were around the face area
and most blows came from the front with
both swords and projectile weapons two
of the men were even partially beheaded
archeologists can't of course be
absolutely sure of these skeletons
belong to the three moneylenders or not
but they are however certain that the
men were Turkish otherwise the locals
would have given them a Christian burial
number two
exploratory voyage turned desperate
fight for survival Canada as part of the
ongoing European expeditions do you find
a Western shortcut to Asia John Franklin
an English Royal Navy officer and
Explorer embarked on his fourth and
final exploratory voyage of the Arctic
trying to find a way around the Canadian
archipelago and onto the Pacific Ocean
on the morning of May the 19th 1845 two
ships the HMS Erebus and HMS Tarot with
a total crew of twenty for officers and
110 men set sail from green eyes in
England never to be seen again the first
two years of the expedition went on
without a hitch and they made it all the
way to King William Island in northern
Canada but as the 1846 Windsor began to
set in the water froze and the ships got
entrenched in the ice as an experienced
arctic explorer Franklin was aware of
this possibility and provisioned his
ships accordingly but the following
summer came and went and the ice didn't
melt keeping the ship stranded Franklin
and two dozen other men died during this
period forcing the remaining explorers
to abandon their ships and attempt a
1,000 mile long trek through the frozen
Canadian wilderness to the nearest
Hudson Bay trading post but as the men
would soon realize their journey would
have a bitter ending none of them making
it even a fifth of the way there between
1847 and 1859 lady Franklin with the
of the British Admiralty personally
funded over 30 expeditions in search her
husband and his crew but to no avail
search missions continued well into the
19th and early 20th centuries
gradually finding evidence that would
piece together the gruesome events that
happened over the years scientists found
more and more skeletal remains belonging
to the crew with clear signs of cut
marks on many of the bones these are
indicative of acts of cannibalism
showing a glimpse at the extremely dire
situation those men were in some bones
said sign of breakage revealing that
even the marrow was extracted in an
attempt to get the last bits of calories
and nutrition possible both wrecked
ships have been discovered in recent
years once and for all
solving the mystery of the arctic's most
tragic expedition number one demons and
sickles Poland's our mythology has no
shortage of monsters demons or evil
spirits lurking in the shadows and out
to get those still living and this can
clearly be seen in a 17th century
cemetery in northwestern Poland since
2008 archaeologists have been digging up
the 400 year old cemetery near the
village of draw scope exposing more than
250 skeletons and to their surprise five
of them were buried with iron sickles
across their necks or hips to women in
their 30s a man in his early 40s and
teenage girl were all sporting an iron
sickle tightly across their necks
another older woman probably in her 50s
or 60s had a sickle across her pelvis
these discoveries initially led some
people to believe that this was a case
of vampires rising from the grave and
the sickles were there to prevent this
from happening however are the
scientists have concluded that this was
not precisely the case though demons
were still involved Poland in the 1600s
was going through a tumultuous period
riddled with Wars famine pestilence and
poverty death was commonplace throughout
the country and even though devoutly
Christian the population oftentimes
turned to pagan beliefs witchcraft and
superstitions in an attempt to make
sense of the horrific events taking
place all around them those who died
swiftly over disease without receiving
the proper rituals for entering the
afterlife
all those who suffered a violent death
were viewed as being at a greater risk
of demonization but unlike true vampire
funerals these people received a proper
Christian funeral were not mutilated and
were mingled with the other deceased
members of the commune
with their heads pointing westward
radiocarbon dating has also shown them
to be of local origin since dead
foreigners were often seen as potential
vampires these sickles there and
possibly acted as Ward's against evil
spirits for both the living and the dead
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